Flintriverfun The Connecticut River is New England's largest river ecosystem and one of the Nation's 14 American Heritage Rivers American Heritage Rivers.Its watershed encompasses over 11,000 square miles of wild, rural and urban lands in parts of four states Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. The River Valley's rich history, economic vitality, and renewed environmental integrity are at the heart of our quality of life and sense of place.Known to Native Americans as Quenticut, "the long tidal river," the Connecticut carves a sinuous, shimmering pathway south from Fourth Connecticut Lake at the Canadian border -- past forested mountains and small hamlets, through rich farmlands and large cities to empty 410 miles later into Long Island Sound.Dammed and dumped in over the past 150 years, the Connecticut gained the reputation by the mid-twentieth century of being the Nation's "best landscaped sewer." People and communities turned their backs to it.

Spring runs of Atlantic salmon and American shad disappeared.Following passage of the Federal Clean Water Act in 1972, communities and businesses stopped using the River as a dump. Through the hard work of the Connecticut River Watershed Council and others, water quality in the River and its tributaries is today dramatically improved. Salmon and shad are returning, and community riverfronts are being revitalized.

The rich natural diversity and special qualities of the Connecticut and its watershed have gained both national and international recognition. It was designated an American Heritage River in 1998, the entire watershed is a National Fish and Wildlife Refuge, and its tidal wetlands are of international importance.Despite the gains of the past quarter century, there are still threats to the River that require vigilance and action by the Watershed Council and others, threats like... combined sewer overflows, nonpoint source pollution, increasing numbers of powerboats, and riverside development.

Length and Route
The length of the river depends on how one defines length: a boater would cover nearly 350 miles in the Flint's meandering channel within a basin measuring only 212 miles in length. The river passes through two power-generating lakes—Lake Blackshear near Cordele and Lake Chehaw near Albany—before it meets the Chattahoochee River 265 miles downstream from its headwaters at the Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam and creates Lake Seminole in the southwest corner of the state. The single river that leaves Lake Seminole is known as the Apalachicola, which flows through Florida to the Gulf of Mexico.

Flora and Fauna
The river is thus home to an abundance of unusual animals and plants. Unique to the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint system are the shoal bass, which is highly prized among fishermen, and the Halloween darter. The Halloween darter was discovered in the Courtesy of Georgia Department of Economic Development early 1990s by researchers at the University of Georgia's Institute of Ecology (later Odum School of Ecology), who in 2009 gave the small fish its scientific name of Percina crypta. The Flint is also home to more than twenty species of freshwater mussels. The Lower Flint contains springs and caves, which are home to the Georgia blind cave salamander and the Dougherty Plain cave crayfish
Natural disasters have also thrust the Flint River into the headlines. In early July 1994, the tropical storm Alberto stalled over western Georgia. Not only did runoff from the city of Atlanta dump millions Courtesy of Georgia Archives, Vanishing Georgia Collection Flint River Flood of 1925 of gallons of water into the Upper Flint, but the storm dropped enough rain on southwest Georgia to submerge some cities, including Montezuma and Newton, and to cause the worst flood in Albany's recorded history. Numerous counties in the Flint basin were declared federal disaster areas; at least thirty-one people died, including fifteen in Americus and four in Albany. A second flood in Albany in March 1998 prompted plans for a levee, which are still being argued.